Dmitri Shostakovich

Shostakovich arrived at 19 with his First Symphony in 1926, instantly marking him as a major composer in the young Soviet Union. His 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk succeeded until the government condemned it, putting his career in jeopardy. The Zhdanov Doctrine denounced his work again in 1948, bringing professional consequences that lasted years, though his censure was rescinded in 1956. He held seats in the Supreme Soviet and chaired the RSFSR Union of Composers, earning Orders of Lenin, even as state interventions shadowed performances like his Thirteenth Symphony in 1962. He left 15 symphonies, 15 string quartets, three operas, concerti, and scores for film - music marked by sharp contrasts, the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality, shaped by neoclassicism and Mahler. The argument over what his music meant, and whether it resisted or served the state, outlived him.